Asbestos examinations for construction workers: a workable alternative

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos examinations for construction workers: a workable alternative, by M.D. Whorton (American Journal of Public Health, 1986).

The study

• Author: M.D. Whorton
• Journal: American Journal of Public Health
• Published: 1986;76(12):1388-9
• Type of article: Editorial
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 001155).

In plain English

This is an editorial, not a research study, and it reports no new data. The author discussed the medical examinations required by the revised asbestos standard that OSHA issued on June 20, 1986. According to the author, the examination includes a medical and work history, a mandatory respiratory questionnaire, a physical examination, a single-view chest x-ray and spirometry. The author wrote that construction groups had argued such examinations were infeasible because of transient jobs, changing employers and cost. OSHA rejected these arguments and required preplacement and periodic examinations for construction workers. The author then described the Western States Asbestos Health Plan, begun in the late 1960s with Asbestos Workers Local 16 in the San Francisco area and extended to almost all insulation workers' locals in the Western United States by 1970. Under the plan, 12 providers in eight states sent records and original chest x-rays to one medical consultant. The consultant evaluated them with uniform criteria and kept them in a permanent, confidential archive. The author suggested such plans could be set up elsewhere in the country.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: editorial (opinion piece; no original study)
• Who was studied: Construction workers covered by the OSHA asbestos standard. As an example, insulation workers in the Western States Asbestos Health Plan, served by 12 health providers in eight states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington).
• Exposure: Occupational asbestos exposure in construction work, addressed through the medical examination requirements of OSHA's revised asbestos standard of June 20, 1986
• Main results:
  • The author reported that the OSHA standard's examination includes a medical and work history, a mandatory respiratory questionnaire, a physical examination, a single-view chest x-ray and spirometric pulmonary function testing.
  • The author reported that OSHA rejected construction-industry arguments of infeasibility and included both preplacement and periodic medical examinations for construction workers.
  • The author described the Western States Asbestos Health Plan as a model program started in the late 1960s with Asbestos Workers Local 16 in the San Francisco area. According to the author, it was extended to Western insulation workers' locals by 1970, before OSHA existed.
  • According to the author, providers in the plan send all medical records and original chest x-rays to the Plan's medical consultant. The consultant evaluates them using uniform criteria and keeps a perpetual, confidential archive.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that this type of plan could be established in other areas of the country to ease the administrative problems that some in the construction industry raised about providing medical examinations.

Related studies

• Asbestos examinations for construction workers — S.P. Schneider (1987)
• Swedish approaches to industry-wide studies: the construction industry — A. Englund (1991)
• Comparison of U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards and German Berufsgenossenschaften Guidelines for Preventive Occupational Health Examinations — K. Straif, M. Silverstein (1997)
• Development of a medical examination program for former workers at a Department of Energy national laboratory — P.N. Breysse, V. Weaver, et al. (2002)
• Evaluation of public and worker exposure due to naturally occurring asbestos in gravel discovered during a road construction project — R.A. Perkins, J. Hargesheimer, et al. (2008)
• A labor-management occupational health service in a construction industry — I.R. Tabershaw, W.C. Cooper, et al. (1970)

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